> There are lots of angel investors in the bay area because of exits that netted them 2-5M or higher ($10-20M) as regular employees.
But that happened back in the day when an early employee got a good cut of the stock. VCs have been perfecting their process, especially since the early 2010s. The contracts are different now -- the founders and the VCs get pretty much all the equity now.
Look at even the biggest IPOs this year. Look at how much equity was in the employee stock pools. Not nearly as much as it used to be.
> Today Stripe seems like a good choice to get a good equity return as an employee on IPO
That's highly unlikely. The company is doing well, but a new employee will get a tiny fraction of the equity.
But that happened back in the day when an early employee got a good cut of the stock. VCs have been perfecting their process, especially since the early 2010s. The contracts are different now -- the founders and the VCs get pretty much all the equity now.
Look at even the biggest IPOs this year. Look at how much equity was in the employee stock pools. Not nearly as much as it used to be.
> Today Stripe seems like a good choice to get a good equity return as an employee on IPO
That's highly unlikely. The company is doing well, but a new employee will get a tiny fraction of the equity.